P&S to DSLR, has it been an easy journey for you?

elysium wrote in post #5513974
I bought my 400D and thought I was great and then got laughed at by friends without any real help until I found POTN.

Same thing with me! lol..but with my fiance, so much for morale support huh? She constantly tells me I don't know how to take "pictures" and she also believes that everything should be centered and she knows absolutely nothing about composition. I'm learning a lot and practicing so she doesn't think my DSLR is a waste of time or money.

P&S to DSLR was easy....Learning how to maximize all the dslr's potential has been a bit toufgher.

But then again I was never as critical ...of the images out of a P&S. I don't believe I ever looked at a "good" shot and said, Yeah it's not bad but I wish I had used a slightly slower shutter speed to have showed more motion.

My only regret is...Having ever bought a POS, (ups I mean P&S) oh if I could just go and reshoot some of my older kids early years.

Good thread to revive.

When I finally moved from P&S (S30) to DSLR (30D) a couple years ago it was like taking the chains off. I was familiar with shooting in M and Av, so the picture taking was a snap (no pun intended). I could finally get the images that I wanted (low light action).
The things that took a little hand holding and getting used to were things like sensor dust, narrow dof, RAW processing, post processing in general, and of course, the amount of money involved.

I discovered that I enjoyed photography when I purchased a few disposable cameras and went with my now wife tonorthwest trek. Talk about exploring your limits. From there I started checking reviews and decided on a sony h2 which was on sale at a good price.

I figured that I would use that camera to learn everyrthing and decide if I wanted a DSLR.

After a trip to the aquarium and woodland park zoo it was all too aparent that I needed more. It would horribly over-expose in daylight since iso 50 ans 1/1000 was the limit, and above iso 400 it had horrid noise noise so indoor shots were equally as bad.


Maybe 3 months later if that I had a new 400D in my hands and its been smooth sailing... other than deciding on lens choices lol. Thankfully the wife supports it and encourages the spending

For the record I never shot auto, it was always av and m

Not especially.

A lot of what I built on the P&S fell apart when trying to transition to the DSLR. For instance, I didn't know that my Nikon only had fixed apertures of f/2.7 and f/4.4, which explained the mystery of why it was so hard for me to get my face in focus when turning the camera around to take self-portraits. The P&S has a 6-50mm range, and it was (and still is) awkward to try to turn the 20D around to take a self-picture; i had to hold it a lot further away to get the same range as the P&S. I haven't yet figured out how to set it so the shutter button both focuses and sets exposure, so there's a lot of fumbling around with using * and then trying to click the shutter. On the flip side, the noise tells me that it's in focus, and shots are always clear and noise-free.

Weight also has cut down the standard sunset run. I used to go about a mile out furtther with my scooter when it was just the P&S, but with the DSLR thumping on my chest, I've had to cut it down to the minimum distance. An Amazon.com review cited that the 18-55mm II is one of the lighest lenses out there, so I can't imagine how it will feel to ride a scooter with the camera around my neck with a real lens rather than the cheaper, plastic lens.

The sunset run also made extensive use of behind-the-fence shots, of which the P&S still reigns supreme. I can put it over the fence, stick it through somewhat-larger holes, and strike much cleaner angles when I put it up against the usual fence slats. I've since learned how to put the 20D over the fence, but due to a lack of Live View I fire blindly and my keep rate plummets pretty badly. I have to turn the lens to 35mm at least to try to replicate the up-against-the-fence shots and I cannot stick the camera inside the hole, period. If I was still daring like I was in 2006, I most ceratinly couldn't take the 20D when I lift the bottom of the fence, and slide in and underneath the hole (that technique dusted up my Canon A400 pretty badly until I brought a plastic bag to house it while I went under).

That being said, the 20D with AI Servo was already super awesome when I went to take shtos of football camp for the newspaper, and that was just with the 75-300mm - which I've learned is widely regarded as Canon's worst telephoto lens. It can surely only get better as I upgrade to the 70-200mm or thereof better lenses. Indoor shots are more difficult, but at least i know what the settings are and i can kick it up to 1600 ISO without having to worry much about noise (the Nikon only went up to 400 ISO and it was a pain to adjust), or try to set it to f/3.5 (f/5.6 at the 55mm end) in hopes of letting in more light. That, too, can only get better, especailly when I upgrade to the 17-55mm.